The Future of Pay & Display Machines
In January we suspected the £95,000 budgeted saving for “changes to parking payment options” would mean a reduction in the number of physical ticket machines, pointing to the council’s phone-only parking trial at the Beck Theatre as a likely blueprint. Hillingdon Council has now confirmed that this is exactly the direction it is heading.
Maintaining the borough’s approximately 300 Pay & Display machines is apparently expensive because of the ongoing connectivity charges, maintenance costs, and high transaction fees. Claiming machine usage is being low in some areas compared to mobile payments, the council is currently reviewing which physical machines can be removed to replicate the cashless approach seen at the Beck Theatre.
Paying for parking without a smartphone?
Acknowledging that not all residents are comfortable with smartphone apps, Richard Webb, Hillingdon’s Director of Community Safety & Enforcement, stressed that alternative payment methods will remain. Where ticket machines are removed, he said drivers will still be able to pay by making a traditional phone call, or by paying with cash or card at local “PayPoint” shops.
Which shops they might be will depend on which machines are removed. We’re not sure there are any nearby shops at the Beck Theatre, there certainly aren’t at the Lido, and the Kingsend South carpark is a long walk from any PayPoint shop: this justification might only be acceptable in some locations – both in Ruislip and across the borough.
Hillingdon First Card Restrictions
We also previously asked for clarification on the £65,000 savings linked to limiting free Hillingdon First Card sessions. We now know this change is specifically designed to stop motorists from claiming back‑to‑back free parking sessions in the same location.
While residents will keep a 30-minute free parking entitlement, the system will be updated this summer to prevent users from chaining multiple free sessions together to extend their stay without paying. Mr Webb described this practice as an abuse of the system, noting that anyone needing to stay longer than their initial free half-hour will be required to pay for the extra time.
Hillingdon First cards have no expiry date and are easy to obtain. Everyone will know of people who have either never lived in Hillingdon, or who moved away many years ago, who still have a Hillingdon First card and use it for free parking on High Streets or at the Lido: there seems to be no plan to address this part of the system.
What Happens Next?
The restrictions on back-to-back free sessions will be implemented in the coming weeks, apparently accompanied by an official council communication campaign. However, there is no mention of the change in the July/August ‘Hillingdon People’ magazine currently being distributed.
Meanwhile, the exact locations of the Pay & Display machines slated for removal remain under review. We will continue to monitor the development of these proposals to see exactly how our local Ruislip high streets and digitally excluded residents might be affected.
Complete transcript of yesterday’s Residents’ Services Select Committee, chaired by Ruislip councillor Peter Smallwood.
Cllr Kamal Preet Kaur, Labour
There were some figures that were cited in the Budget Report under Service Savings. We don’t seem to have the same thing in here because the changes to parking payment options is going to save us £95,000.
It also says removal of multiple daily free Hillingdon First cards. But in our report, we continue to say that people can pay in display and people can also pay via pay by phone.
So how are we making these £95,000 savings? Is there any threat to physical ticket machines going forward?
Richard Webb
The change we’re looking at making is to limit the way in which someone with a Hillingdon First card can get multiple free sessions. That change is going to happen over the summer which will then we will obviously communicate this and the detail of it at the time but Hillingdon First card holders will still have an entitlement to free parking sessions but not back-to-back sessions as that is obviously an abuse of the system.
You can have 30 minutes free but you’re required to pay for an hour: someone shouldn’t get two back-to-back free sessions that’s what we need to reduce.
The parking payment machine is under review, so we are liaising with a Cabinet Member about how we approach that.
Pay & Display machines are quite expensive because they have connection costs and maintenance costs and the transaction fees on a machine are more than they are when someone uses Pay By Phone. So there is a considerable amount we could save by reducing the number of Pay & Display machines we have. We have something like 300 at the moment.
We are aware that there were people who would not necessarily want to use Pay By Phone. What I would say is Pay By Phone, you can pay by making a phone call, you can pay by having a smartphone app, and you can also pay by going into PayPoint shops (and paying by cash or card in a shop) for a parking session.
In some of our areas, the usage of Pay & Display machines is quite small compared to the payments on phone and therefore we’re paying out quite a bit for facilities that are not necessarily well used.
We need to look carefully at whether or not it’s right to continue to pay for all of those Pay & Display machines when actually there may be a lot of benefit for saving – and without much impact – by moving to a reduced number.
So it’s under review but the proposals will need to be developed to put forward.
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